Negative thoughts make a person sick, what is the nocebo effect as opposed to placebo?

Charlotte Blisse, a researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden, has conducted research on the nocebo effect: The nocebo effect can make a person sicker than a placebo. Negative thoughts are very harmful for human health. Some people experience motion sickness while traveling. Try to find distractions to avoid motion sickness. If someone starts shivering during motion sickness, the nocebo effect is triggered.

The nocebo effect can increase problems such as anxiety, nausea, and fatigue as a result of negative expectations. This is the exact opposite of the placebo effect. In a clinical trial, one group was given a real medicine to reduce headaches, while the other group was given a lozenge that contained no medicine. When the second group's headaches went away, doctors attributed it to the placebo effect. He felt that we were indeed taking the right medicine and with this positive thought his headache went away.

The placebo effect is recognized in medicine but gradually the nocebo effect is also coming into focus. This effect spreads when negative thinking is done. During the Corona pandemic, researchers observed that people's pre-vaccination fears were affecting their experiences. People who had negative thoughts before taking the vaccine also had a similar effect.

A study by Yaakov Hoffman, a professor in the department of social and health sciences at Bar Ilan University in Israel, was published in the journal Scientific Reports in 2022. People who had doubts about taking the third dose of the vaccine also experienced this. The nocebo effect creates a vicious cycle. The negative thoughts going on in the mind start affecting the body.

Nocebo is an effect similar to placebo that is not the result of the pessimistic patient's imagination. Disentangling the effects of nocebo and placebo is part of the neuroscientific process. The body stops excreting painkillers during nociceptive effects. So the mind becomes more agitated due to which more pain is felt. However, in modern medicine the nocibo effect is not considered to be as effective as placebo.